


The House

by hufflebecks



Category: Dalton Academy Series
Genre: Gen, Jude lives, Living Together, The Next Exit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:22:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflebecks/pseuds/hufflebecks
Summary: Dalton canon divergence fic. Jude Whittaker was attacked but he lived. A couple of years later, he's living at his home with Clay, Austin, Jasper, Jake and Robin. The Next Exit has just been formed, and the six boys work on healing each other with friendship.This isn't focused on relationships, though mentions of them do show up, and some may occur in later chapters. Other Dalton characters will be mentioned throughout, though the main focus is on the six boys.The story involves healing from trauma, runaway teens, hurt/comfort and angst elements, and a whole lot of friendship and band antics.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Jude Whittaker





	The House

“Jude?” Robin yells up the stairs, “Are you coming to school today?”

He hears a muffled response that didn’t sound overly promising, so he yells back, “I’ll bring your work home!” and slings his bag onto his back. The weather outside was nice, and out of all them living in the house, Robin never minded spending his days at school. Jake had been up late and would likely sleep until noon, so it wasn’t like he’d miss much band practice. As he headed out the door, he could hear Clay beating away on his drums in the garage, and wondered if Clay had slept at all.

Without Robin making his way through the house, it returned to a quieter noise level for a while, only the distant sounds of the drumbeat filling in the silence which was easy enough to ignore. The next awake happened to be Jasper, rolling out of bed with a yawn as he tugged on a shirt and made his way into the bathroom. He hadn’t woken up through the night which likely meant Clay hadn’t come into the room at all, though that wasn’t uncommon.

After using the bathroom, Jasper headed downstairs and rounded the corner to the kitchen where he turned on the coffee maker and tossed some bread into the toaster. Robin had left a mess after his breakfast so Jasper tidied up while he waited, still fighting to contain his yawns. He had slept enough but was never properly awake until his first coffee of the day.

The sunlight was coming fully into the house by the time Jasper sat down at the table with his phone, absently scrolling through apps as he ate. He’d had a missed call from Kent so he sent a text asking what was up, and send a Snapchat to Lana though he knew she’d be at school by now and wouldn’t see it until lunchtime.

Jasper didn’t even notice Jude had come downstairs until he heard the fridge open, and he glanced over. Jude’s hair was sticking up everywhere and he was bundled up in a jacket three sizes too big, looking a bit lost as he stared into the fridge.

“Morning Jude,” Jasper greets, “Toast?”

“Hmm,” Jude mumbles then nods, though he makes no moves to get it himself. Jasper smiles and scoots back off his chair and starts working on making Jude some breakfast, telling him to go sit and he’ll bring it when it’s done.

While Jude sits at the small dining table, Jasper makes conversation, “Sleep well last night?”

“No,” Jude responds, sounding tired.

“Was it Clay? I don’t think he came in last night.” Jasper knows that the youngest of the group likely had nothing to do with why Jude couldn’t sleep but liked to sacrifice his friend as a scapegoat anyway.

Jude didn’t take the bait though and shrugged, “Nah.” He laid his head in his arms, closing his eyes again. Jasper watched him for a moment before the toast popped up and he got to buttering it, spreading it right to the edges the way he knows Jude prefers. There wasn’t a lot he could do or say to help Jude, but he could at least be useful and make his life easier. He cut up the two pieces of toast into quarters, plating them and sliding the plate over to Jude.

“Eat up,” Jasper prompts him, finishing the last of his coffee in one gulp before going to wash the dishes. It was only silent for twenty seconds before Jasper couldn’t resist talking more, “I’ll go get the groceries later, my pay came in last night. Is the list up to date?”

“I think so,” Jude replies, back to sitting up properly and eating the toast, “You know b-b-better.”

“I’ll take a look before I head out. I’ll drag Jake out with me, give you some quiet. I can always tie Clay to a chair as well, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Jude nods, only half listening though he didn’t mind Jasper’s insistence of talking. It wasn’t that Jude wasn’t a morning person, he was just tired and needed some more time to gather energy. He zoned out as he ate slowly, aware that Jasper kept talking but unable to force himself to focus in enough to listen. If Jasper noticed, he didn’t mention it or demand Jude’s attention. With the dishes done apart from Jude’s toast plate, Jasper checked the fridge, freezer and cupboards to finalize the grocery list.

Before leaving the house, Jasper put a glass of orange juice in front of Jude, not needing to remind him to take his medication because Jude was always good for it but Jasper got grossed out when Jude would take them dry. With the list gripped in his hand, he headed out to the garage and headed inside.

He stood watching Clay drum for a minute until the younger boy paused, and he called out, “Clay!”

Clay jumped as he looked over but then a grin came onto his face, delighted to see his friend. “Sup dude!”

“Morning, you been out here all night?”

“Mostly,” Clay says, getting up from the seat and heading over to Jasper, “I kept quiet though. I worked through the songs we have, and I think I’ve got a beat down for that new song Jake’s been working on. Wanna hear?”

“Maybe later,” Jasper says and hands him the grocery list, “Going shopping soon, want to add anything?”

Clay scrambled for a pen, spending a couple of minutes adding and amending the list. He was now the main cook of the house, so all grocery lists got given to him for finalization. Clay was the only one who didn’t care to order in pizza every single night - even Jude and Austin had fallen into some bad eating habits before Clay turned up a few weeks ago.

“How long was Jake out here for?” Jasper asks, looking over Clay’s shoulder as he wrote more items.

“Dunno, ‘til two? Maybe three? I wasn’t paying much attention.”

Jasper chuckled, not surprised in the slightest. Clay finished the list and shoved it back at Jasper, tossing the pen over to the couch then again asked, “Wanna hear it? Please Jas??”

Jasper shrugged, “Sure.”

So Clay ran back to his drum set and began to play again.

Inside, Jude had finished taking his medication, downed the orange juice and went back upstairs to get dressed. The stairs were tiring but he made it up with strong help from the rail, knowing he should be using his cane but there were days he didn’t want to rely on it, and this was one of them. He made his way to his bedroom, starting the slow process of getting clean and dressed, grateful that his hand seems to be cooperating with him today and doesn’t close up.

Jude has no real plans for the day although he was supposed to be at school. He’s been going more often this year but still skips at least a couple days each week, citing pain or exhaustion. He has enough school work to keep him busy and from failing, and the school hasn’t come down on him about it yet.

As he brushes his hair, he can hear the music from the garage getting louder and he chuckles to himself. No doubt Jasper got distracted and baited into playing since Jude can hear the sounds of the bass guitar alongside the drums. Jude also has no doubts that if it weren’t a school day, Robin would’ve been out there jamming with them, Jake not too far behind.

Sometimes having all the boys living in his childhood home becomes overwhelming, but then Jude thinks about being alone again and the crushing fear that comes from that makes him realize how grateful he is. It was loud, messy and chaotic nearly every single day, but there were also so many good moments. Clay cooked great food and was happy energy even on the bad days; Jasper was so helpful and knew how to keep the house clean; Austin was a quiet comfort who offered surprisingly good ideas; Jake was maturing into his brother every day and was becoming quite responsible; Robin was always coming up with ways to make things more efficient and always the first to help Jude when he was struggling.

Finally looking presentable for the day, Jude takes some time to collect some school work, his cane, his journal and the charger for his phone so he can spend the day downstairs. He knows he could easily send one of them upstairs to grab things for him but he didn’t want to turn his friends into his caregivers or become reliant on other people. He’s recovered so much in the past two and a half years since he was attacked, and would hate himself if he let go of all the hard work.

Jude leaves his room the same time Austin leaves his, across the hall. Austin looks bright and alert, his clothes neat and his hair styled nicely. He has his usual satchel swung over his back, no doubt carrying at least two books and his headphones already over his ears. Austin didn’t notice Jude until he got to the top of the stairs and caught him in the corner of his eye, pulling one of the headphones away from an ear and greets,

“Morning, Jude.”

“Hi, Austin,” Jude nods, “Going out?”

“Library,” Austin says as if he wasn’t visiting daily at that point. He didn’t bring up why Jude wasn’t at school today.

“You’re gonna run out of b-b-books,” Jude jokes and Austin cracks a smile. “Nah, they keep being written.”

Austin makes a move to continue his descent down but hesitates and offers, “Need any help?”

Jude shakes his head, the staircase wasn’t big enough to have two of them going down at the same time. And the rail was safer than holding onto someone’s arm - something he learned with his mom when he felt strong enough to try it the first time.

Austin had been living with Jude the longest of all the boys, just a couple of months after Ruth died the year before. Blaine and his ex Logan had shown up at his door with the young quiet blond between them, asking if they could come in for a few minutes. Logan did the talking, explaining that Austin had run away from home a few weeks before, and had been living with him, Johnny and Michelle but wasn’t finding much happiness there, either. They had no idea where to send Austin, as he’d declared if he had to go back to his dad and step-mom, he’d just run away again.

They asked if Austin could live with Jude, just temporarily. Logan would pay Jude and would come by every single day, that Jude wasn’t being taken advantage of. Blaine looked caught in between but relaxed when Jude agreed. The house was so quiet and haunting now that he was alone in it, even with Blaine and his other friends coming by daily. Austin didn’t say much the entire time they talked, and Jude picked up that he wasn’t a troublemaker, just troubled.

Logan must have given Austin a long talk before he moved in a few days later since Austin was always quick to help Jude even without being asked. He never asked why Jude stuttered, walked with a limp or had to take so much medications. He also gave Jude space when he seemed upset, but would come back afterwards and just sit with him, not offering up a conversation.

True to his word - Logan came by every single day without fail, giving Austin things to do since Nelson and Cordelia didn’t want Austin to settle in so he’d be more likely to come home. They refused to allow their son permission to enrol in a new school, only allowing him to remain under Johnny and Michelle’s guardianship because Austin had threatened to leave again (“or worse”) if they kept pressuring him to return.

While it was only supposed to be temporary, Jude found that he enjoyed having the younger boy around and would quickly consider him a friend. When Logan mentioned one day that he’d found a more permanent place for Austin, Jude had quietly protested and offered to keep Austin with him. Austin agreed when asked, and now 13 months later, he still lives there.

“Do you need me to pick anything up?” Austin asks, still hesitating to leave. While Jude had recovered a lot more in the past year, Austin still wanted to be useful and not feel like a burden. For a while, he had been the one to do the shopping and cleaning when Jude wasn’t able to, Jasper helping when he showed up a month later.

“Nah,” Jude starts his slow descent back down, only able to use one rail as he was carrying his things in the other arm, “Jasper’s going to the store soon.”

Jude still struggled to leave the house, even though he finally enrolled back in school. It’s been a couple of months since the new year began, however, Jude rarely attended, preferring to have his work sent to him. He couldn’t stand the pitying looks, the ways the other kids seemed to avoid or whisper about him, the wide berth they all gave him. Besides, Jude still got tired easily and would be ready to leave by lunchtime. Blaine and Logan had both put in a good word for him to attend Dalton, but the school had politely declined and Jude didn’t fight it. Instead, he was accepted into a public school just around the corner although he was placed back in sophomore year as that was the grade he had missed after recovering.

Safely back downstairs, Jude got himself set up back at the table though Austin was eyeing him and said, “Just wake him up.”

“It’s okay,” Jude promised, glancing at where Jake lay asleep on the couch as usual, “Let him sleep.”

While they could probably make it work between the three bedrooms, Jake didn’t seem to like sleeping in a room with anyone else unless they fell asleep in the living room around him. He was on a different sleep schedule than the rest of them, and though he denied it, Austin figured that Jake didn’t like the idea of waking his friends up when coming back to the bedroom at odd hours.

It did get a bit annoying when Jake was fast asleep in the middle of the day in the living room though, at least for Jude and Austin who didn’t want to bother him so couldn’t use that room. Jasper and Robin however never had an issue with pulling Jake straight off the couch and telling him to wake up, even if he’d only been asleep a short while. Clay hadn’t been there long enough to wake Jake up yet, but Jude figured it wouldn’t be long before the youngest member of the band started getting frustrated, too.

“Your house,” was all Austin said as he grabbed an apple from the fridge, put his headphones back on properly and headed out the door without so much as a goodbye.

It was quiet again, apart from the distant sound of music and Jude easily settled into a routine of book work. It was surprisingly easy for him to just zone out and concentrate even if he worked slowly. His memory had improved since the attack but he still needed time to think before answering anything. Math was fine, he did okay in Science, but anything related to memory such as English or History was a struggle and he constantly had to look things up.

He only got to work for an hour uninterrupted before Clay came racing into the house, drumsticks still in hand and out of breath, asked Jude, “Can I go with Jas to the shops!?”

“No,” Jude answered, “It’s the m-m-middle of the day.”

Clay’s lit up face dropped and he almost pouted, “Nobody will recognize me here, Jude. Please?”

“And if they do?” Jude countered, “You’ll b-b-b-b… you’ll get sent b-back to New York, and we’ll all get in trouble for housing you.”

Clay seemed to internally battle himself over wanting to leave the house for an errand, or obey Jude and keep them safe. Luckily Jasper trailed in after the punk teen and said, “Stay with Jude, Clay. It’s not very exciting.”

“Easy for you to say,” Clay sighs and crosses his arms, animated even when he’s feeling let down, “You get to leave.”

“You ran away, dummy,” Jasper points out unhelpfully, “You can get freedom back when you contact your mother.”

Clay shoves him, and Jasper is quick to shove back. It’s not violent, both of them barely budged the other and Jasper even chuckles as he wraps Clay’s head into his arm and rubs his hair with his knuckles, successfully messing up his hair.

“DUDE STOP!” Clay yells, struggling to wriggle out of the hold, and Jasper reluctantly let go. Clay grumbled but only a second later, he grinned as nothing could keep his mood down for long.

“Jasper’s right,” Jude agrees, slightly amused at the way Jasper interacts with Clay, “You could call home.”

“Nah,” Clay says with a wave of his hand, dismissing the idea immediately, “I’m not going back there.”

“Then I guess we’re keeping you on house arrest,” Jasper says as he grabs his keys, “Sucks for you.”

Clay poked his tongue out at the older teen then sighed, dramatically flopping onto another of the kitchen chairs.

“Austin already gone?” Jasper asked, shrugging when Jude nodded in confirmation, “Alright I’ll go alone.”

When he left the house, he slammed the door a little too hard - something Jude kept telling all of them not to do. Clay winces and glances over to the sofa, grinning when Jake sits up a moment later, already looking mad that he was woken up so rudely.

“Morning Jakie!” Clay yells out happily, waving towards the half-awake teenager. Jude holds a finger to his lips, wanting Clay to reduce the noise a notch or two though Clay doesn’t notice.

Jake turns a glare to the boy at the table and Clay is quick to proclaim his innocence, “Twasn’t me, it was Jasper! You should get up anyway, it’s so late, and I wanna show you the new beats I came up with. I showed Jas and he said they were great, I want to rehearse with everyone when Robbie’s home from school, but I can show you before then. I worked all night even after you left, and Jas came and played with me for a bit so we could really work it out together.”

Clay had hopped off the chair while he talks, and Jude laughs a little at the bewildered look on Jake’s face. Neither are certain that Clay took a single breath while talking. The newest member of their little ragtag household took some getting used to, but he brought in some energy. It had only taken three hours from him turning up on the doorstep to him and Robin jamming in the garage, and he had been indicted into the band by that evening.

“Slow down,” Jake finally says the moment Clay pauses, “You talk too much.”

From Jake, it was likely meant as an insult but Clay just grins brighter and almost bounces on his heels, “Mom used to tell me that all the time.”

Jake rolls his eyes and casts the blanket aside, scooting off the couch and pushing past Clay to head to the bathroom. He holds up one hand and says, “Don’t follow me. Make me a coffee.”

Clay turns towards the kitchen, and Jude laughs, “You don’t have to, Clay. He can do it himself.”

“I want him to like me,” Clay says as he bounds towards the kitchen. Jude has no idea where he gets all his energy from - even when he was Clay’s age he still needed sleep and would be grumpy if he pulled an all-nighter.

With quiet for a few more minutes, Jude turned his attention back to his notes but found his interest has already been lost. He didn’t like being interrupted for that reason - it was so hard to get back in focus and pick up from where he left off. Jude also knew that Clay and Jake would soon be squabbling around him, so all hope was lost for the afternoon.

“Coffee, Jude?” Clay asks, “I don’t know how you like yours though, but if you tell me I can make you one.”

Jude couldn’t help but smile - something about the boy was endearing to him; he reminded him a lot of Shane.

“I’m okay, thanks.”

A beat of silence then Clay rejoins him at the table again, an excited look on his face, “So, I was thinking. What if I go out at night? Nobody will be around to notice me.”

“Clay,” Jude sighs, “W-Why not just call your m-m-mom? Tell her that you’re safe. She’s not going to stop looking for you.”

Clay’s smile drops but he doesn’t stop looking at Jude as he answers, “She’ll make me go back to her.”

“Is that so b-bad?”

“I don’t know. She seemed pretty sure she was tired of me.”

A third voice joins the discussion as Jake reenters the room, hearing the conversation, “If she’s looking for you, she gives a shit, dumbass.”

“What if she just wants me back so she can send me away?” Clay counters, “It could be a trick.”

“Probably not,” Jake noticed his coffee hadn’t been made, though Clay _had_ set out a mug before he got distracted so he put the kettle on, “It’s not too late to go home.”

“I don’t want to,” Clay started to pout, fiddling with one of Jude’s pens, “I like it here with you guys. I won’t be in the band if I go back.”

“You’re thirteen,” Jude points out kindly, “There’s time for other b-b-b-b… groups.”

“You’re gonna get Jude arrested,” Jake points out, less kindly; he pours his coffee - black, no sugar or milk. “And you abandoned your mom after your dad died, and now she has nobody left. That’s a pretty big asshole move on your part.”

Clay was silent, staring down at his hands, looking close to crying. Jude sighs in exasperation, “Jake stop.”

“Why?” Jake looks over at the two, “I’m saying the truth. You said it - he’s 13 and should be going home. Just cause the cops gave up looking doesn’t mean his mom will.”

“You should call her,” Jude agrees quietly, not wanting to upset Clay but he does agree - as fun as the boy is to have around, this shouldn’t be his home.

“You left!” Clay countered, not looking at either of them but it was clear that he was getting upset, “What makes you any better than me!?”

“My folks know where I am,” Jake shrugs, sipping the hot drink, “If they gave a shit, they could come to see me any time. Same with Jasper, Austin and Robin. All of their families know they’re here, you’re the only one keeping your family in the dark.”

It wasn’t anything Clay didn’t already know, and he hated that Jake had the upper hand on him. He did not argue. Clay angrily wiped his eyes.

“Think about it,” Jude tells Clay, “It’ll ease her w-worries.” Then he turned a little towards Jake though could only see him from the corner of his eye, “Drop it now.”

Jake rolled his eyes and shrugged again, heading back towards the couch so he could tidy the area up. Despite being the one with the sourest attitude in the house, Jake was tied with Jasper for most tidy and didn’t like to leave anything a mess. His older brother Riley told Jude once that Jake had always been that way - his brother’s bedroom back home had always been spotless even when Jake was young.

Jude looked back at Clay, still paying close attention to his hands and said, “Go take a nap, Clay.” Clay didn’t need any more prompting and quietly headed upstairs to the room he shares with Jasper. He wasn’t overly tired but he did need some time to calm down and gather his thoughts. He also felt a bit embarrassed that he cried in front of Jude and Jake.

Jude and Jake didn’t say another word to each other, both just going about their days, the house returned to a quiet noise level.


End file.
